Southern Miss continued their preparation for Week 1 with a productive practice featuring plenty of individual work.

After going without pads the day before, the Golden Eagles let the thuds echo through The Rock today as they got efficient special teams work and reps against the scout team.

“Really good day… We saw the pads popping. We got some good work with our young guys, and we got some good kickoff return work. I thought it was really physical, and then our punt[ing session] was really physical today,” head coach Will Hall said. “I thought we took a big step forward with those guys. [It’s] not that we’ve been bad, but it was good to see people [hitting each other].”

Hall mentioned some of the younger guys that have impressed, including D.J. Burgess, Tiaquelin Mims and Davis Dalton. Cameron Knox, a freshman safety from New Albany, MS, received some of the highest praise from Hall on the day.

“Cameron Knox is another young guy that’s going to be a really good player for us,” Hall said. “He’s got some older guys that are great players in front of him, but there’s going to come a day where every Southern Miss fan knows who Cam Knox is. He’s got ‘it’.”

The Golden Eagles spent most of the day in individual drills as they continue to hone their craft in preparation for Liberty. Tomorrow is set to be a “mock scrimmage” but it is unlikely that there will be many – if any – live reps on the field. Practice will be closed for media availability.

“We’re a team that’s going to be much better in December than we are right now. We don’t want to waste any days. We see our young guys that are getting better every day. The more we play football, the better we get at it,” Hall said. “...We’ll come back and continue to prepare for Liberty. We’re going to be a really prepared football team because it’s going to take everybody in the whole Pine Belt area to pull this one off.”

Hall said that he knows “who [they] can count on and who [they] can’t” in terms of personnel ahead of Monday’s updated depth chart release. He mentioned that there are some players who have an opportunity to work themselves into Week 1’s game plan next week with some strong practices on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hall was optimistic about the health of his team, saying “I don’t know anybody that we thought would start Game 1 that’s not going to start outside of Hayes Maples, but he’s been gone since the summer. I think we’re at a good place. If we had to play tomorrow, all hands would be on deck.”

Hall praised the added depth of his football team this season as they reached the limit of scholarship players on the team. He compared last year’s team to a “2A [high school] team” at times. He said the added depth in the trenches – or offensive and defensive line – adds a huge boost to the 2022 team and should pay dividends this season.

Hall praised the work the higher-ups of Southern Miss have done with the football program, as he noted the numerous upgrades that either have happened or will happen.

“Since we’ve been here, we’ve power washed the stadium. We’ve put all-new graphics on the stadium. We’ve totally redone the inside of our building, and then we have plans to re-turf the field after the season’s over with,” Hall said. “You’re looking at a two-year span where we’ve upgraded every facility that football touches along with totally revamping our nutrition program. In a two-year span, we’ve turned this program back into being a first-class place.”

Southern Miss concludes this week with a “mock scrimmage” tomorrow, followed by continued preparation next week. Stay tuned on Big Gold Nation for up-to-date coverage on the Golden Eagles.